European driving hours really does my head in

Hay People.

Well I was not going to do much of blogs while I’m still in the UK. Not much excitement happens here :-) but I thought I would keep you up to date.

Over the weekend, the wife got me working like a pig lol. DIY on the house preparing it to rent out etc. Then bank holiday Monday is just a normal working day for Clipper. Well for us drivers anyway. So I had a 0930 booking in Swindon where I had to take a Double Decker trailer. The only down side for us to take deckers is we have a low bridge a few hundred yards down our depot, so we have to go the long way round each time. I got down to Homebase right on time only to find out they was not expecting me. (this is a standard weekly booking regardless of whether it is a bank holiday or not) that was the first problem. The second problem was, because I had a decker. The only forklift they had that would reach the top deck to off load it had been condemned, VOR (vehicle off road) so they could not off load me but would see what else they could do. At this point I opened up to see how many pallets was up on the top deck to see if I could handball them off. But by the time I got back to security to let them know, 10 mins later, miraculously the forklift was fixed. Miracle. lol Wot Everrr....But the driver was still on his break for another 20 mins or so. Bummer, I’m laid back so no worries really. Finally over 2 hours later I’m finally done. :-) But this is where the European driving hours really does my head in. I will be so glad when I’m over in Canada where the rules are much more relaxed. For those of you that don’t know. After four and half hours driving you must have a 45 min break. Like me I like to drive as much as that 4 ½ hours as I can before I have to stop. But that is always miles from the next truck stop so end up starving till you can drive on and find somewhere to eat on your travels. :-( They should give you that little flexibility to drive to a food stop of some kind……anyways when I left Homebase, because I had been so long, I had been working for 6 hours which means I have to have a minimum 30 min break even though I have not driven for 4 ½ hours. Their canteen was shut so had to break outside the gate, with no food again. Its no good just having the 30 mins has in another half hour I would have had to stop again for another 30 mins anyway so had the 45 and off I went again. Did get KFC on the move though. :-) So in the end a 9 hour day turned into a 12 hour day. But who cares. In 2 weeks I get to follow a more flexible way of driving lol